Self-analysis is impossible because it remains within the domain of privacy, a domain predominated by narcissistic illusion and imaginary ideals. In our private worlds, we count the value of our conscious intentions far too highly, and we simultaneously fail to grasp our unconscious motivations. We pay attention to our conscious intentions rather than to the signifiers that we employ unconsciously. To psychoanalyze oneself is to fall further into one’s private self-deception.

Todd McGowan, Driven into the Public: The Psychic Constitution of Space